A positive thread about drivers we dislike.

I've been surprised at the tone of the bb in the past week - it's the end of one of the closest and most exciting seasons in memory and yet, there seems to be an inordinate amount of bitterness and bile. Unsurprising, I suppose, given the controversies and non-controversies surrounding the final race. But let's forget about that.

Here's my suggestion - write a post finding something good to say about the driver you like least or most revile. Please don't damn with faint praise, and, as my Mom used to say; " if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".

I have never been a Hamilton fan - part and parcel with being an Alonso fan I suppose. But I do have to say that I was impressed by him this year. He made very few mistakes this year (possibly the only real one you could name was the Maldonado/Valencia incident, and that can hardly be called his fault alone), and soldiered on in the face of a great deal of rubbish; poor reliability, poor pit work, accidents that weren't of his making and of course the re-signing or not of the mcLaren contract.

He finished 4th this year, and quite a long way back - but this is not a reflection of the season he had. It was hard NOT to admire him this season - he deserved much MUCH better and yet, in spite of "not "getting' it he was calm, reasoned, and always competitive. Even the way he handled the break with McLaren and the move to Mercedes was impressive. Had he had better reliability and team work this year, there's a good chance that he would have been WDC - and it would have been well deserved.

i never liked Jensen button. ever since i've started watching F1, i remember him being in a BAR battling with mostly mid/lower midfield teams and yet being brit gettin ample time on coverages, but back then i actually was kind of fond of teams like jordan/BAR cause of the underdog factor. but since 2009, i've gotten so bored with 'Jenson this, jenson that, Tire jesus, Prost's successor' etc etc etc that i've really irritates me when comenators/press praise him now a days. I'll admit on his days he's very good and he can make early wet/dry transition calls on tire. but IMHO, he's an old schoor AVG driver who happen to have a car 1/1.5 seconds faster to win his one championship.

We hear people moan about SV's ability and that how it's the car advantage/newey design etc etc, yet they fail to mention 2009 season, if seb is loathed, then Button should be outright hated for his WDC's.

Apart from him, the other driver has to be PDR, he too seems to have the same trend as JB, mediocre driver, huge boring publicity, can't do anything wrong. i've always noticed media playing down both Sutil's and hulkenbergs speed ... when they do good, car was good that day, when PDR does good, he's the god

I should also mention that during his renault days, i didn't like Alonso . he seemed too cocky and arrogant back in his first stint with the team. but i've grown to respect him since his Ferrari days (and i hate Ferrari, even though they gave Kimsta his WDC, still 2008-09 was painful TBH)

- Kimi: I loathe his so worshiped attitude, but his comeback is enough to shut me up. In the end it's on-track performance that counts.
- Perez: Again, I find it hard to stand his reckless aggression (specially on-track) and constant hand waving at his competitors, but his 3 podiums were astonishing no matter how different or risky strategy he was on. After all, Vettel did the same thing i.e. capitalizing on favorable condition.

Great topic. I had the same impression last week. Was wondering how would these forums look like if you were only allowed to speak good about drivers. Then a driver would do something outstanding to even be mentioned.

My turn: Sebastian is not worse at qualifying than Lewis, as I would like to see it

Raikkonen. Never really taken to the personality he presents to the fans BUT he seems to not take himself very seriously either, which in F1 can be a bit of fresh air. But the main thing that impressed me this season is, as ever, his overtakes - unlike some other drivers, I was never worried he's going to do something dumb and accidentally crash someone out. He never gets greedy and causes an accident by forcing a move that isn't there. He'll attack hard when the chance is there but if it's not, he backs off to have another go later. An exceptionally talented driver.

Raikkonen. Never really taken to the personality he presents to the fans BUT he seems to not take himself very seriously either, which in F1 can be a bit of fresh air. But the main thing that impressed me this season is, as ever, his overtakes - unlike some other drivers, I was never worried he's going to do something dumb and accidentally crash someone out. He never gets greedy and causes an accident by forcing a move that isn't there. He'll attack hard when the chance is there but if it's not, he backs off to have another go later. An exceptionally talented driver.

Yeah - I blow hot and cold with Kimi - but I have to say that his personality and his irreverence is a breath of fresh air in what is becoming more and more a corporate atmosphere.

Alonso - his Ferrari and Kimi are too tangled up so not going into that, but I never disliked Alonso, more importantly he is a great rival to have, a fighter to say the least.

Schumi - never liked his political side, or regard him that highly as a pure racer. But this year I enjoyed his classy wheel-to-wheel racing with Kimi, and I notice how Kimi trust Michael's skill and experience to even try those moves. Besides it's good to see how Michael finally came to terms with the reality, I mean that's gracious.

Hamilton - admit he is my least favourite and waiting for Mercedes to be his true measurer. To me he is a temporary phenomenon and i'll shut up until time proves me wrong. However if I'm honest his pace in qualifying in that McL is really, something sublime. And my impression is he is a kind person who has a soft heart.
that's it

I've always felt that Hamilton tries very hard to make me dislike him. I was disappointed that Vettel missed out on a win in Austin this year, but to be honest--Seb's championship contention out of the picture--it was perhaps the first time I was happy to see Lewis win a race. He seemed to be far more relaxed on the podium and in his relations with Vettel and Alonso. He's hard for me to read; sometimes he seems genuinely humble and other times he seems downright arrogant, and it's hard to tell which is the 'real' Lewis because for me his attitude seems to change on an almost monthly basis. But even if his personality rubs me the wrong way, I can't fault his driving. Definitely one of the best drivers in the sport; he was really stellar this year and truly came back from what had to be his worst season last year--and watching someone improve in such a way is always special. I think he's an idiot for leaving McLaren ('idiot' used here as I would use it to describe a friend, lol), but a part of me really hopes that the change will humble him completely and the experience with a new team will transform him into an even more complete and consistent driver. All the best for him in the future.

Alonso is an enigma. There is, in my opinion, so much propaganda surrounding him, positive or negative, that it's extremely difficult to get an accurate picture of who he really is. He is a ruthless competitor--to me, he is the embodiment of a 'win at all costs' attitude. I feel that there is no such thing as 'sporting' or 'unsporting' to him: there is only winning and losing, through whatever means necessary. He, either directly or at the behest of his team, takes the rules to their absolute limit in pursuit of victory. In a way, I can't help but admire that, because you know that if Fernando is on your side he will have done absolutely everything he can to help you win. In the top level of motorsport, you can't really fault that. It will rub some people the wrong way--and it does so for me, sometimes--but you have to understand that, given the opportunity, nearly everyone else would probably do the same thing. As a driver, I think he's prone to over-driving sometimes, and as a person, I think he has a hard time accepting defeat--but it is the over-driving that defines his on-track character, and it is the difficulty of accepting defeat that fuels his desire to win. Never, ever, ever count him out.

These two have fluctuated for me in terms of 'liking' them. When I come to like one, I often begin to dislike the other for some reason, and vice versa. They're two of my least-favourite drivers in the sport for their egos (my impression, maybe ill-founded) and the amount of hype surrounding them--I don't think they're as good as many people believe them to be. But without a doubt, they are two of the best drivers in the sport, and F1 would be very different (and likely less enjoyable, for me and everyone else) without them. These two--along with Vettel--are currently defining this era in the sport, in my opinion, and you can't help but at least like them for that.

Hamilton is extremely fast and talented driver. And he certainly has some pop-star coolness around him, which makes him extremely marketable.

Alonso is very determined and consistent. I'm really sorry that he lost the years he was clearly the best driver in F1 by quite a margin in uncompetitive Renault. He deserves one more WDC (but hopefully not at the expense of Vettel)

I cant stand Alonso for numerous reasons which I wont list here because this is a thread for positives only, so... Alonso had simply amazing year, made almost no mistakes and took probably almost everything out of the car throughout the year, cant expect more from a racing driver than that.

Sebastian Vettel: He has won 3 titles now, and whilst I don't necessarily think that is a true reflection of his own abilities, especially in comparison to his (now less successful) main rivals, he still has won those titles, and that takes some doing no matter how good you are. To take every chance presented to you is testament to determination, hard work and no shortage of bravery and risk taking.

I'm not a big fan of Lewis Hamilton, don't care for his -media- persona, the drama and for -many of- his fans.Started out a fan in 2007 but after Monaco and of course Hungary that year it went into dislike and finally after Liegate in 2009 I was well and truly finished with the @%$#$^%

2010 & 2011 only reinforced my dim view of him, however I must admit this year, at least on track, he was almost flawless and his title bid was only hampered by the car/team.

BUT I've always enjoyed seeing Lewis in the car in those weekends when it all comes together, when there's no drama, no mistakes and he feels absolutely one with the car.Then it's a pleasure to see him racing, hitting every apex, throwing the car into corners at unbelievable speed but always knowing he's in full control.Those races I realize what a unique talent the man has and how great it is to watch him race sometimes.

So I've said it pfff...

Also I dislike Jos Verstappen but I couldn't think of anything nice to say about him other than that he once rammed Montoya off the track ;)

Being a Seb fan, Im positive about Kimi, Hulk, Lewis and Koba, while being neutral about Felipe, Jenson, Sergio and Romain. So the top drivers in the negative are Fernando, Mark, PDR, Pastor and Britney.

Ill start with Fernando (whose two titles I ironically cheered for as a fan untill the events of 2007 and Singapore 2008)...
The reason I chose him as my pick of the emerging generation (ahead of kimi) was because I saw him as a very intelligent driver - in the prost mould - who could win races not merely with his pace, but also with the thing found in between his ears. And I feel he has developed by leaps and bounds in this aspect, since I became a non-fan of his and as I have said before Suzuka 08, Silvo11, Sepang12 and Valencia12 bear testament to it. Easily the wisest head going around, though I believe Sebastian is catching up with him as he gains more and more experience.

As for Mark...
Ive had to defend him from Vettel doubters on many occassions inspite of my dislike for him. So accepting that he is phenomenally fast over a lap is nothing new for me. I feel him, along with Fernando, Lewis and Seb are the elite four when it comes to one lap pace.

As for PDR...
It is very difficult for me to give a judgement as I havent followed him closely enough. But my gut feeling is that he is a solid David Coulthard-ish driver capable of race wins. But I could be wrong about it though.

As for Pastor...
I have just three words... He is fast.

Finally onto Britney...
He is imho a solid and smooth driver who is in the Jenson Button mould, who is capable of atleast mounting a challenge for the title.

Fernando - I have actually always disliked you (your persona). But hey, the guy really knows how to drive that thing
Schumey - It's not about your fights with Mika but your arrogance, you're no favorite of mine - but yeah, a true pro you are, one has to admit. Happy ret. and all the best for ya'

I have been visiting this forum for years, but eventually participated in the discussion in 2007 because of my intense dislike for Hamilton. I could not stand Hamilton and Ron Dennis at all especially his "We are not racing Kimi, we are racing Fernando" in China 2007.

After 5 years, I am beginning to warm up to Lewis. But I still think that Jenson GF is 10x prettier than Nicole...

Jenson - There's just something about his personality I don't like but I have to give him credit. Outside the car, the way he's able to get people on his side is impressive and a smart move. He very rarely says the wrong thing and was brave to take up the challenge of partnering Hamilton at McLaren. Inside the car I admire his ability to feel what the car is doing and his smooth, accurate style. When he's happy with his car he's a match for absolutely anyone.

Edit: Also imo Schumacher and Alonso came across as real a**holes in the past but both seem much more likeable now.

I cant stand Alonso for numerous reasons which I wont list here because this is a thread for positives only, so... Alonso had simply amazing year, made almost no mistakes and took probably almost everything out of the car throughout the year, cant expect more from a racing driver than that.

I have a lot of disdain towards Vettel and I honestly always wish for his Red Bull to break down... but really, off-track, he seems like a very genuinely nice and friendly guy. I don't like him on track, but off track he seems to be a pretty admirable and respectable guy.

Drivers I specifically like: Kobayashi, Maldonado, Raikkonen, PetrovDrivers I specifically dislike: Perez, di Resta, Alonso, Button.All the other drivers I have no real feelings of either way.

Perez: I dislike the endless hand-waving and the arrogance/brattiness this shows, and I'll go to my grave genuinely believing McLaren have picked the wrong Sauber driver, but I also feel that F1 could use a heavier North American presence and if he and his backers are a large part of landing a Mexican GP on the grid in the next few years, rekindling even more interest outside of Brazil and Canada, as well as perhaps some more interest in the US, it is a small price to pay. I don't think he's a bad driver, but I find it difficult to warm up to him and I just don't think he's all that. His seeming indifference to other drivers (specifically Abu Dhabi, where he ****ed up the race for Grosjean, Webber and a few others) is a huge mark against him. If Maldonado had done that people would have been calling for a five-race ban.

di Resta: gillesthegenius summed up my thoughts pretty well.

Alonso: I don't dislike Alonso himself, probably the best driver on the grid, but more than aura surrounding him. I have absolutely zero problem with team orders and there is nothing wrong with focusing your energy on one of your drivers when the other driver is clearly out of the picture. But Ferrari very much seem like if Alonso the person became an F1 team these past few seasons. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that any team sometimes feels as though it was birthed into existence solely to support one of it's drivers. Granted, Massa hasn't done a hell of a lot to deserve equal treatment much past halfway in the season the past 3 years, but even then, the whole affair just feels like a giant pile of shit to me.

Button: Gets the benefit of the doubt an awful lot from fans and media alike, who are quick to shit all over Vettel's championships for car advantage while conveniently forgetting Button's was the luckiest of them all, and even then he was nearly defeated by Barrichello. Part of this is a little bitterness on my part, not a Barrichello fan but I would have loved 2009 as a season infinitely more if it was Woobens taking the title after so many years playing Massa to Schumacher, than if it was Button. This last complaint is a bit unfair, but I can't help how I feel - Button is only 31 or 32 but he's been in F1 for 12 seasons now, and when I think of all the drivers I really liked who never got a 2nd season, or even got to finish the 1st, I can't help but be a bit annoyed that someone who in my eyes is very much Coulthard-esque has managed to not only stick around, but is given a championship-winning (or nearly so) car every year. But the positives even I can see: Button is fantastic in changing conditions. He rarely seems to get caught out by them and it's almost as if he's 1 lap ahead of the field mentally whenever there's a chance of rain, like he can see how the track is going to be 2 minutes from now so much better than anyone else. He's solid enough in the dry that if the car is capable of a championship, I don't see anyone on the grid you could pair him with for a driver lineup that you'd say "Button has no chance against ______". He always seems to be in with a shout, so he must be doing something right.

And for the record, no strong feelings of Vettel either way but I too often hope for his Red Bull to break even though he seems like a nice bloke.

Button is smug and far too happy to lap up undeserved praise. Plus he is over-rated by the media, and this includes never talking about anything negative ie zero talk of how bad he has been this season. Davidson's 'more than matched Hamilton' quote is the classic example of this; after this season to say that??

However:

Button does seem genuinely very good in mixed conditions. He seems to have the confidence/experience to make a ballsy call, as well as the relationship with his RE to get correct info.

Unfortunately for him its rare enough that a race is bordering on wets/slicks ala Brazil. But he does always have that in his pocket over most others.

Out of the top guns right now, clearly Hamilton.I was really open about his driving the first couple of months. What really changed his view for me was his move on Glock at Monza 2008. ( http://www.youtube.c...JvQhZCsuM#t=84s ) Hamilton had no respect for other drivers, in my opionion trully believing to be next kind of Senna.2011, where other people did the same thing to him and he had some kind of breakdown made it even worse. Spoiled brat is all I can think off.He has changed for the last ~6 months. I won't judge yet if he is honest about it or not. We will see it in 2013-2015 if/if not he has succes with Mercedes.

Other guys allready mentioned:-Barrichello, was never fast enough and couldn't deal with it.-Trulli, he got them pictures!-Alonso, I believe he was in on Singapour. Even if he didn't, he must have realised it the moment the race was finished.

I think some are missing the point of the topic with their lengthy reasoning for why they don't like a particular driver... old bad habits die hard?

There is no driver I dislike; naturally they all have their pros and cons. None of them are perfect, and none of them are the evil pantomime vallains that the vitriolic keyboard warriors would wish them to be. Of the two drivers I had a negative view of this season, based on performance: hopefully next season Massa can maintain his recent form to continue showing that he is deserving of the Ferrari seat (it;s admirable how he has turned things around), and Maldonado can continue to show his undoubted speed and keep out of trouble.

There aren't any drivers I strongly dislike, but I'm not a fan of Vettel. However, he's clearly one of the best drivers out there at the moment, he seems like a nice guy and he's proven that he's capable of overtaking this year.

I used to hate Schumacher when he won everything. I was too young and silly to see his greatness. After 2005 I started to dislike him less. Now I think it´s a shame I can´t watch him a couple of years more, and watching the same old races that would make me mad, I think: this guy is awesome. Felt sad this Sunday.

I DON´T like Lewis Hamilton. Won´t bother giving reasons, but he irritates me. But boy, can he drive. I was expecting him to turn into another JPM after 2011, but he drove as well as anyone this year. He´s seriously good.

I´m starting to dislike more and more Fernando Alonso. I´d still support him in a straight fight with Hamilton for a title, but his constant dismissing of Vettel has dropped my view of him. Liked him a lot when he drove for Renault (after all he ended my nemesis streak!! ), but during his Ferrari stint I like him less and less. But you know what, this guy is the reference on the current grid: No one else has been at that high level for such a period of time as he did. Everything he has done since 2004 ended is really good.

I like Kimi and neutral to all the other drivers. I dislike Ferrari for what they did to Kimi. Here goes:
Kimi - A true and clean racer. Off track, I like his personality, philosophy and pinch of comedy in his answers.
Lewis - hoped for his failure in 2007 and for his win in 2008. At times he seem to be unstable off track. But started to warming up to this guy this season. an incredible driver he is.
Vettel - Like his driving on the track and loves his off the track persona too. Not a fan though.
Schumi - A true legend. started watching F1 for him. But 2008 changed my opinions hence moved away.
Alonso - On the track, he is none to second. A great racer. His race craft and presence of mind astonishes me every time. Off track... In any case I would have cheered for him if not driving a red car, as he told once himself

Never liked Hamilton at all. Still not totally warm to him personally but he has grown on me. His race craft is superb but more importantly I feel sorry for him that he chose to go to Mercedes. McLaren is a lesser team without him there and I truly think that Mac without Hamilton will not be a title threat. The opposition are happy with his move.

I've been surprised at the tone of the bb in the past week - it's the end of one of the closest and most exciting seasons in memory and yet, there seems to be an inordinate amount of bitterness and bile. Unsurprising, I suppose, given the controversies and non-controversies surrounding the final race. But let's forget about that.

You've been here since 98(!) and think this is anything out of the ordinary? This has always been the official F1 hate-a-driver forums. Anyway,

Alonso is the best driver in the grid, and had his best season dragging a slow-ish Ferrari (albeit with a couple other advantages over his competitors - reliability and lack of team pitwall f*ckups come to mind) into a couple points from the world title. He's also been driving at this level for the past 8 years, with 3 different teams. Living legend already, really, if still a shady evil, mainpulative bastard.

Hamilton too had his best year in F1, unexpected after a slightly poor 2011. It seemed at a point he was giving up the focus on racing for becoming a celebrity first, but f*cking hell he really did drive the wheels of that Mac. And didn't mess up anywhere near as much as he used to in previous years. Lost a mammoth amount of points to factors outside his control, otherwise could have become champion or near. Top, top driver, not so top fashion model or hip-hop artist groupie (but top marks for that effort on trying to get rid of the "adorable prodigy child" tag).

Schumacher, well, I can't say much positive about the present as he's past it, but he is nowhere near as past it as any other 43 year olds would be. The points table is too unfair to him as he also had reliability and other issues. His past record however, I rate him up there as one of the 4 all time best paired with Fangio, Senna and Clark - 7 titles don't lie, no matter the rest. He's almost grown into that awkward old uncle role, the guy that still does things that all other old people no longer do, only because they're still fun to him, and that's nice. Still think he'd do Monaco'06/Jerez'97/Adelaide'94/Macau'90 all over again though.

Maldonado is a quick bastard. A very quick bastard. He owns Monaco like very few others and only great drivers do that (albeit some marshalls will object to that). He now owns Barcelona too because he won there in a freaking Williams, something that hadn't been done in 8 years. Were he capable of turning his speed into points, he'd be in a top team next year, but he's not. Still has done fantastically well to salvage the reputation of his speed, after coming into F1 branded the evil paydriver. Could do without ripping off the people of Venezuela though, or ripping off everyone's front wings (yeah, yeah I know, I'm a Grosjean fan).

Petrov has killed the career of grand prix winner, widely acclaimed God of Backmarkers 2010 and 2011 Heikki Kovalainen, through his racecraft alone. He also did enough last year to kill "Quick" Nick's career (albeit by only nearly matching him, which was enough for people to reach the conclusion Nick was finished), and seriously cast some doubt on Bruno Nephew's. That is extremely impressive for a guy that didn't do karts at all, and had an atrociously slow first season in F1 - fantastic rate of improvement. I still highly doubt his speed is anything above average though, and would rather have other drivers in the grid. Also, I'm sure they could've found an English teacher for him in Soviet Russia by now.

Massa, besides embarrassing my favourite driver back a few years ago, hence proving he was far better than everybody thought, came back from the dead this season and surprised the living sh*t out of everyone again, by bouncing back from Badoer-esque levels of performance mid-season to actually being quicker than Alonso in consecutive weekends by the end of the year. That was a mighty long sentence so now to keep up consistency I need to explain why I dislike him, and that's a difficult one. I don't really know why, probably because he's "passionate" for the sake of being "passionate" as all latins apparently must be. I'm latin and a cynical cold bastard so that's probably why he rubs me the wrong way.

Vettel is the youngest ever 3 times champion, Newey or no Newey. Ask Mark Webber how easy it is to do that. Besides casually winning GPs, topping qualifying sessions and fastest lap charts, often doing it all at once and all apparently invalidated by "xpert punditz" because of Newey; this folk shut up everyone who claimed he was rubbish for not overtaking, by right about passing the entire grid 3 times in Abu Dhabi and Interlagos alone, salvaging a doomed title bid in the process under enormous pressure. I don't really dislike him as much as the previous drivers, but that finger man, the yabadabadooooringdingdobibiloboooo, just stop it. Winners' arrogance is just not cool, bro.